


90 Minutes

by SScagnetti



Category: Free!
Genre: Family, Family Feels, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-24
Updated: 2015-01-24
Packaged: 2018-03-08 19:48:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3221204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SScagnetti/pseuds/SScagnetti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A piece I wrote for the family prompt day of Reigisa Week 2015. It's about Rei and Nagisa after they get married and have a family, and Rei struggling to get them all ready for a big and important day out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	90 Minutes

                Rei was dreaming when the fuzzy pulsation that was his alarm’s siren breaking through the wall of sleep began to reach him. He was dreaming that he was strolling along a warm beach in the Caribbean somewhere enjoying the rush of the ocean waves off by his side and the bright, beautiful colors around all him. In the distance a figure was running towards him. As the droning noise of the alarm grew louder and louder, he was unable to make out whom exactly it was heading his way. The alarm noise got louder and louder as the figure continued to approach him and somewhere deep in his consciousness Rei knew he was in a dream and soon he would have to get up. He wanted to know who was running towards him, though, and all of his dreamy focus switched to interpreting this. The noise of the waves nearby him faded away as his consciousness switched to the figure in front of him.

                It was a lithe but shorter figure than his own (the alarm’s ringing shifted up in pitch), and they seemed to be wearing a…all white bikini (the ringing pulsated faster now)? And…they had shoulder length golden hair (there was an ungodly echo of each of the siren’s blasts now), and it seemed as though they were familiar. The tone of the alarm was increasing in pitch and volume as the figure got closer and closer, and the dream world around Rei faded out except for the figure and himself. The distance flashed red with each pulsation of the alarm but the figure was finally close enough. He could just about figure out who it was now.

*BUZZ*

                It hit him.

*BUZZ*

                It was Nagisa. The figure of Nagisa in a scanty, white bikini with shoulder length hair screaming out at Rei with a phrase he hadn’t heard in years.

*BUZZ*

_"Rei-channnnnn"_

*BUZZZZZZZ*

                Rei’s eyes snapped open. The alarm next to him continued to drone, albeit at a quieter and less annoying pitch than before. He was lying in his bed, alone. The curtains were closed and the room was dark. Elsewhere in his house he could hear the frantic running and muffled booms of children playing. Water was also running somewhere. With a deliberate and fast snap of his arm, Rei smacked the sleep button on the alarm clock next to him and exhaled.

                What an odd dream, Rei thought to himself. Since he and Nagisa had gotten married he didn’t usually have The Bikini Dream anymore. He couldn’t tell if that meant he was going to have a good day or a bad day…

                “Damn it!” Rei screamed aloud. He remembered just _what_ day it was. He bolted upright and reached for his glasses. Putting them on sloppily he reached and turned the clock on his nightstand to face him. “Fifteen minutes!” Rei screamed again. His alarm had been ringing for fifteen minutes! His carefully crafted schedule for the day was already falling apart and he hadn't even got out of bed.

                Rei threw the covers off of himself and jumped out of bed. In the darkness he landed on the ground feeling some sort of clothing strewn about below his feet. The room was a mess, but he didn’t have time for this. Not today.

                Because in an hour and a half, or rather in an hour and _fifteen minutes_ from now, Rei and Nagisa and their two kids had to be in the car and dressed in their best attire. Today was Kou’s wedding, and there was no way that after all she had done for Rei and Nagisa over the years, that they were going to be late! Rei looked at the clock once more.

                “7:17 AM” Rei said to himself.                                                                                                                                   

 

**7:15 AM**

                Nagisa was at the kitchen sink doing the dishes from the night before. He hummed happily to himself, enjoying how full of life his house was at the moment. In the living room one of the kids was watching TV and jumping around excitedly. Elsewhere upstairs another kid was running in and out of their room. And directly above him was the noise of Rei finally getting up and silencing the alarm that had been going for the entire duration of Nagisa’s dish washing.

                Nagisa knew that Rei would be upset that he slept through his alarm, but Nagisa was too busy to go wake him up. After all, he couldn’t _always_ be bailing Rei out of trouble. He had to learn at some point. Nagisa chuckled to himself as he thought this.

                He turned off the water and moved the last of the plates to the drying rack. He still needed to prepare breakfast, but according to Rei’s schedule as long as the food was ready for them in the next fifteen minutes or so he would still be within the “acceptable parameters”. Nagisa giggled. Rei was so adorable. It was so fun to push the limits with him; Rei tended to over-think everything and rarely was everything as worrisome as he made it. Some might see his prodding as mean but Nagisa knew that if left to his own devices, Rei would plan out every second of every day and in the end forget to do the most important thing of all: enjoying life itself and the present moments rather than the future.

                Nagisa pushed himself away from the sink and went to go see what he could cook up that didn’t take very long. As he did so, he noticed that when washing the dishes he had chipped some of the nail polish off one of his fingers on his right hand. He hadn’t liked the color he had used last time anyway (an ugly dark red) so he didn’t mind, but today was a big occasion. He couldn’t go out like that; he would have to fix it at some time. The only bad news was polishing his nails was not at all in Rei’s schedule. Rei would hate to see him doing that. Nagisa grinned again.

 

**7:30 AM**

                Rei was in the shower. His schedule was shot to hell already. He should have finished the shower and been downstairs eating with his family by now. As he lathered up his body Rei did all he could to figure out how to salvage things. He knew that getting the kids dressed was far easier than his biggest challenge, getting Nagisa dressed. Nagisa loved formal wear and would be glowing, to be sure, but he knew that it would be a good twenty minutes of hair fixing and…well he didn’t actually know exactly _what_ took Nagisa so long to do when he got dressed, but it sure took a while.

                Rei sighed. As he washed off his body he realized that he still had his wedding ring on. He had slept with it on and not removed it once he got in the shower. He smiled to himself as he looked down at it. He really did love Nagisa. He couldn’t believe it had already been five years since they got married. In that time they already had two lovely children, and had lucked out finding stable careers. Nagisa was deep into designing and selling his own clothing and Rei was into civic planning. He had considered architecture for a while, but the organization and logic of designing the layout of cities was far too appealing for Rei. They made a hell of a couple when he thought about it.

                And it had been three years since their kids were born. Their daughter Chou and son Hideo were both biologically Rei’s. The idea had been always to have two children, one with each of Rei and Nagisa as the biological parent, but when Rei was chosen to go first, unexpectedly, twins came along. For now that was a handful and they didn’t know if they would ever want to have another child. Rei always worried deep inside that Nagisa would feel bad; that he would be upset that none of these children were really “his”, but he was happy as could be being their father. And he really was their dad. They loved him all the same and probably enjoyed his fun and stress-free company the most. It was a silly notion, to imagine jealousy over such a matter, but Rei was always one to be neurotic.

                Rei turned off the water and quickly hopped out of the shower. He dried himself off fast, wrapped his towel around himself, and looked into the mirror. Nagisa and himself still swam somewhat often and were in good shape, but every now and then Rei noticed that he was losing some of his muscle definition. Perhaps even putting on some weight…

                Emerging into the bedroom Rei found an unexpected surprise sitting on the bed in front of him. It was Nagisa painting his finger nails a shade of purple, and their daughter Chou working on painting his toe nails a different color. They were both so nonchalant about it, though Nagisa had a wide grin on his face. Rei immediately began to panic.

                “Nagisa? Chou? What are you doing here, why aren’t you cooking? We have to eat now!! We have to eat so that we can all take showers and give the hot water time to recover after two of us, then we need to get dressed and pack up the car and-“

                “Daddy, are you okay?” Chou asked innocently as she gazed up at Rei who was clutching his chest with one hand and his forehead with the other. He was wearing only a towel wrapped around his waist and looked akin to a Roman who had just heard Caesar had died.

                Rei looked into his daughter’s eyes. Though she was not biologically Nagisa’s, her eyes were the same near-red color as his. And like his partner’s eyes, her warm gaze never failed to calm Rei down.

                “I…Yes Chou, I’m okay. I just, well we, really need to not mess around. Today is going to be an important and very long day. We have to be ready for it. And eating breakfast is essential. Painting nails is not!” Rei lowered his arms to clutch his towel awkwardly.

                Nagisa chuckled and put down the nail polish for a moment. He kept his hand extended to let the new purple color he had just applied dry off a little.

                “Rei, it’s okay.” Nagisa began, “I needed a new coat anyway; I wrecked them washing the dishes. Plus that color was ugly. You know if you want, _you_ could go cook something up.”

                Rei scoffed and stormed over to his chest of drawers. “No, Nagisa, I cannot! I have to…I uh.” Rei paused in the middle of rooting through his sock drawer. What was he supposed to do? His schedule was destroyed! He couldn’t even remember where he was supposed to be right now at…7:37? They had less than an hour before they had to leave! Where did Rei even leave his written form of the mornings itinerary? He needed to check it!

                “Rei…Rei…Rei-chan!” Nagisa called over at the tall dark haired boy. The term _Rei-chan_ immediately made him stop in his tracks and turn to look at Nagisa. “Rei, calm down. Okay?” Nagisa continued, “Why don’t you go and start cooking us all some breakfast, after you put on something, and I will finish up here and start getting the kids dressed. Okayyy?” Nagisa brought his voice into a sing-song tone and closed his eyes while smiling at Rei. Rei melted across the room and blushed. Even after all these years, Nagisa still had the power to do this to him.

                “Uhm. Sounds good, Nagisa.” Rei spoke and turned back around to pull clothes out of his dresser.

                “I love youuuuuu Reiiiiii.” Nagisa said in-key from behind him.

                “I love you too, Nagisa.” Rei kept blushing but luckily with his back to the bed he doubt Nagisa could see it. No doubt he knew it, but he couldn’t see it.

                “Daddy!” Chou yelled out at Rei. Rei turned around and looked at her quizzically. “Daddy I love you too!”

                Rei smiled earnestly and looked at his little daughter. She was so beautiful, a total daddy’s little girl.

                “And I love you, my Beautiful Buttefly!” The term Nagisa used to use as a pet name for Rei was something he in turn applied to his daughter; because she indeed was his beautiful butterfly. She was beautiful and flawless. Nagisa beamed glowingly at them both, letting out a small “Awwwww” before Rei turned to head back towards the bathroom to get dressed.

 

**8:05 AM**

                Rei was in the kitchen cooking as fast as he could. He was frying eggs and making pancakes and preparing sausages, all at the same time on the same stove. He also was off and on shaking a carton of orange juice he had pulled out of the fridge about ten minutes ago and continually forgetting he had shaken. Toast was popping up in the toaster every couple of minutes and Rei would run over from the stove to the counter to quickly butter the pieces as they did so, before rushing back over to the stove. Behind him Hideo, his son, was sitting at the table watching television on the small TV they had in the kitchen, usually used by Nagisa when he was cooking. Upstairs Nagisa and Chou were booming around doing God knows what.

                “Father?” Hideo intoned.

                “Ergh, yes son?” Rei responded as he dashed towards the toaster again.

                “Father, isn’t Kou-san my mother? Is that why we are going to her wedding?”

                Rei paused as he finished buttering the toast and turned to look at his son, clad in pajamas covered in dolphins. They were the ones Haru had bought for him for his last birthday, and Hideo had been quite taken with them. In fact he had developed an odd love of dolphins thanks to his Uncle Haru..

                “Well, yes and no. No, she is not your biological mother, but yes she carried you in her womb. No, that is not why we are going to her wedding but yes it is. Sort of. She has been mine and your Papa’s friend for a very long time.

                “I see.” Hideo murmured. He took after Rei, quite a lot. Thought he didn’t wear glasses, at least not yet, he looked like his father and had many of their same passions. He could even read, roughly at least, and was very well mannered and mild-mannered.

                “And yes," Rei continued, "we do owe her a lot so we want to be there in full today to help her with whatever she needs. And of course your Papa had a large hand in finishing her wedding dress. Though if he doesn’t hurry up, none of us will ever see it!” Rei scoffed and adjusted his glasses. He paced back over to the pancakes and began taking the rest of the food off the stove and serving it up.

                Rei moved his plates of food over to the table and jogged out of the kitchen into the living room so he could yell up the stairwell.

                “Nagisa! Chou! The food is prepared! If you would like to eat, come do so now! Otherwise you will go without. By my calculations you have…ten minutes to eat! Providing you got dressed like I asked.” By the time Rei finished blurting out his words, Nagisa and Chou were already coming down the stairs. Nagisa was wearing his suit, sans his jacket and bow tie, and Chou was in her lovely purple dress that Nagisa and Rei had helped her pick out just for the occasion. They both wore matching hair clips, another new accessory bought just for the day.

                Nagisa smirked at Rei as he reached the bottom of the steps. Chou ran off into the kitchen to join Hideo, who was already into a plate of food. Even now Rei was taller than Nagisa, though not by a lot anymore. With Nagisa's shoes on and his lack of shoes he just about was at eve level with his golden haired lover. As he stood in front of the well-dressed Nagisa in his half-dressed state, he had memories of this morning’s dream. He wondered if Nagisa would wear such a thing _under_ his suits…

                “Rei, you shouldn’t worry so much. We will make it to the wedding today in plenty of time. The drive isn’t nearly as bad as you think it is. Plus you told me you allotted a half hour "buffer zone", right? We could be here another forty minutes and still make it.” Nagisa spoke quietly but with warm inflection in his voice. Rei felt soothed by his words and un-tensed his muscles. He looked into his lover’s red eyes and was slightly blindsided when Nagisa gently leaned in and gave him a deep kiss. Rei, startled, hesitated for a moment but eventually leaned in and accepted the gesture. He reached up his right hand and put it behind Nagisa’s head to pull him in as close as possible. Nagisa chuckled mischievously. Rei felt infinitely more relaxed.

                When the two pulled themselves apart, Nagisa wrapped his arms around Rei’s side.

                “Come on Reiiii. Let’s go eat! We only have eight maybe nine minutes left now, hmm?” Rei nodded and Nagisa led his husband towards the kitchen by the hand. When they arrived Chou was inhaling her pancakes and Hideo was nearly finished with his eggs and toast. He really did take after Rei; very simple food eaten in moderate quantities. Most likely his first plate would be all he would have and he would head up to get dressed all of his own volition.

                Nagisa laughed out loud upon first seeing the mountain of food his husband had prepared and immediately began mocking him as he took his seat.

                “Jeez Rei, you say we are in a hurry and you make a four course meal! Not very efficient; if I’d known you wanted a Sunday breakfast I really would have started cooking sooner.” Chou snickered at Nagisa’s comment and Rei frowned as he folded his arms.

                “Unlike you,” Rei began, “ _I_ believe in a balanced breakfast. A nutritious meal to start the day off with.”

                “I would imagine all the food groups are well represented here, honey.” Nagisa sung as he promptly took three fourths of the remaining pancakes for himself. “Why don’t you sit down and eat with the family and enjoy a peaceful moment. Before you no doubt start lecturing us all on your schedule again.”

                Rei adjusted his glasses with a huff, and took his seat. For a moment the family was calm; all were enjoying their food and happily chewing. The first to leave was Hideo, who had finished eating almost by the time Rei sat down but waited to finish his entire glass of orange juice. Next to leave was Rei, who ate quickly, looked at the time, had a brief panic attack, and damn near sprinted up the steps to his room to get ready. Chou left next, going into the living room to watch TV until the boys were ready, and Nagisa stayed at the table the longest. Finishing off just about everything that everyone else didn’t eat.

 

**8:26 AM**

                Rei hurriedly did up his tie. They might make it on schedule! Just barely but they may make it. Everyone had eaten, the children were dressed, Nagisa had…probably showered. Rei smirked to himself; he loved it when one of his plans came together. Now if he could get Nagisa to put on the rest of his suit and get their stuff together, they could be out in…five minutes?

                Rei looked at his watch and cussed under his breath. So close, but not quite before 8:30. Nagisa was right; he had factored in a buffer zone for their inevitable tardiness in getting together. But still, it would have been nice.

                Rei straightened his suit and curtly gave one final brush to his black sports coat. When he left the master bathroom, he found Nagisa had still not put on his coat and tie (both were sitting on the freshly made bed), but out in the hallway he could tell Chou was in her room playing or something as she waited for Nagisa as well. She loved to “pretty herself up” with him. Hideo was not to be seen but Rei was confident he was ready. Which again just left Nagisa, who was probably still eating.

                Rei walked out into Chou’s room to say good morning to her. He hadn’t really had the chance to do so. Her door was open and she was on her bed coloring in one of her coloring books. After giving her a big hug he took a look at what she was drawing in. It was an animal coloring book and she was focusing her efforts on a jungle scene with two lions coming out of the forest. Rei chuckled to himself, enjoying the inappropriate biome for the animal. It was something only he would find funny.

                “Are we ready to go yet?” Chou asked.

                “Almost. You-Know-Who just needs to get ready.” Chou chuckled and nodded.

                “He sure is slow isn’t he? Do you like our new hairclips, Daddy? See look they are penguins! Papa loves penguins doesn’t he?” She took the clip out of her hair and reached up towards Rei’s head. He laughed and leaned forward, letting her put the clip in his hair. She fixed it just so, and smiled at her dad. Rei leaned forward and kissed her on the top of her head. She really did remind him of Nagisa sometimes.

 

**8:31 AM**

                Rei had managed to drag Nagisa upstairs, forced his coat and bow tie on him, dodged him trying to make out with him simply to be an ass and gotten him and the kids to the front entryway for the house. Rei dashed around upstairs, making sure they had all they would need for the day.

                He grabbed the wedding presents, auxiliary ties for Nagisa, a clean shirt (just in case), shoe polish (again just in case) and a Tupperware container that had leftover toast and sausage in it because most likely someone would get the munchies on the trip over. He also grabbed a load of napkins, fearing the worst of food being eaten in a moving car with everyone in their finest.

                By the time he got back to the doorway, Nagisa and the kids were gone but luckily they were waiting in the car. Rei knew that his husband and his son loved to just disappear without a word and be found doing mundane tasks alarmingly slow every time they were in a hurry.

                Rei balanced his arms full of his possessions and locked the front door. Nagisa had gotten out of the car to assist him. As they walked to the driveway, Rei grilled him.

                “Everyone used the bathroom? No one has to go?”

                “Yessir, Rei. They are all ready!”

                “No one forgot any belongings?”

                “Nope!”

                “You have whatever you need?”

                “Indeed I do. I remembered my phone even. I turned it on in the car.”

                “Good good.”

                Rei opened the trunk and began loading the packages in. Nagisa seemed to hesitate.

                “Come on Nagisa! Help me out please, we need to get going!” Rei’s hair whipped around as he rushed along. Nagisa had a strange look on his face.

                “Honey, Rei, do you know what day today is? And why Kou is getting married today?” Rei nodded and spoke up.

                “Yes, the first day of autumn, she loves the colors. Wanted to get married to-“ Rei interrupted himself and stared at Nagisa. “Nagisa…please tell me you set the clocks back like you were supposed to?” Nagisa stood innocently smiling at him. Rei began to blush and melt down on the inside. Is this why he was moving so slow? Why would this make him move slower though? Oh God how late would they be? Why did he trust him to do something so important and exact?

                “Yes Rei, of course I did.” Rei breathed a sigh of relief and closed the trunk. “But in turning on my phone I noticed something.”

                “What is that?” Rei inquired. Nagisa pulled his phone out of his pocket and extended it out for Rei. Rei took it and looked at the screen. The time it showed was...7:31 AM? Rei looked at the phone in a very confused manner.

                 “See, I think you are going to find this funny. It seems I set the clocks back so good, I set them back two hours instead of one! We have another whole hour before we have to leave! So we aren’t running late at all! With the buffer we are an hour and a half ahead of schedule!” Nagisa chuckled, feeling victorious for some reason, and Rei stood confused. He didn’t know how to feel. On one hand, he was not running late, on the other hand his schedule was still destroyed. And on the third hand, if he had one, he and his family was now fully dressed and clean and would have to stay so…for another hour and a half. The spawn of Nagisa and Rei, and Nagisa and Rei, would have to stay beautiful and clean for 90 more minutes.

                  Rei slinked to the ground silently as Nagisa stood beside him, gently patting his head.


End file.
